Pollen is a community comprised of civic-minded connectors who share ideas, career and civic engagement opportunities and peer-to-peer recognition to create positive impact and personal and professional growth for its members.

What is Pollen?

For those of you experiencing Pollen for the first time, here’s a quick overview of who we are:

“Pollen is a community comprised of civic-minded connectors who share ideas, career and civic engagement opportunities and peer-to-peer recognition to create positive impact and personal and professional growth for its members.”

Pollen Archives

Pollen on Facebook

Tired of waiting for the next issue to share information with the Pollen community? Post your own updates whenever you’d like directly to our Facebook page: 1,350+ fellow Pollenites already spend time engaging with each other there, so come on over and join us!

Pollen on LinkedIn

Become a full fledged Pollenite!

If someone has forwarded this to you and you’d like to become a full-fledged Pollenite, which provides you with the opportunity to contribute content for distribution to the entire Pollen network, become a member by emailing larsl@keystonesearch.com.

Special Announcement

There will be a major announcement regarding the future of Pollen shared within the next 60 days. In the interim, a sincere thank you to all of Pollenation for continuing to build, grow, and strengthen this community together. Thank you!!

March 4 - Save the date for Fourth Generation's "Graze for Good" on Sunday, March 4th at 4:00-6:00 p.m. at Spill the Wine. Support Fourth Generation's grantmaking to local organizations addressing Food Justice in the Twin Cities and get a sampling of food by amazing local chefs from Piccolo, Tilia and Travail Kitchen and Amusements. RSVP.

March 24 – Early-career and mid-level women wanting to accelerate their transition into leadership roles are invited to a high-impact, high-intensity, one-day seminar, A Women in Leadership Event: “Poised for Leadership” at Concordia University, St. Paul from 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m.

May 19 – The Alzheimer’s Association’s annual Remembering Our Stars Gala raises funds to support the many programs and services of the Association and is also a time to celebrate the lives of loved ones with Alzheimer’s and related diseases.

June 15 –Playworks Twin Cities 2nd Annual Corporate Kickball Tournament is scheduled for Friday, 11-5 p.m. June 15 at Dunning Field in Saint Paul. Come out with your colleagues for a day in the sun playing kickball against other Twin Cities professional. This event is a fundraiser supporting Playworks Twin Cities where we engage more than 4,000 children in active play in nine lower-income Minneapolis and Saint Paul Public schools. If you are looking for a fun rewarding employee engagement event outside in the Spring, this is the one!

Larissa Rodriguez, director of care delivery marketing at HealthPartners and founder of Swimmunity.com, was named one of the "Power 25" emerging leaders in the aquatics industry by Aquatics International magazine. With as many as 35-50% of U.S. adults unable to swim, Larissa is on a mission to get more adults to learn how to swim to prevent drownings, improve health and reduce disparities.

Becky Hoffman and Maren Leafblad for co-chairing a highly successful Lantern Festival Gala with music from The New Standards raising support for Yinghua Academy

Emma Wilhelm has begun blogging for Huffington Post. See her recent posts 1|2

Pollen Loves

In recognition of Valentine’s Day, we asked Pollenites to answer the question “Who or What do you love?”. Below are unedited responses we received from members.

Matthew Lewis:

I love the collaboration and innovations happening at CoCo Minneapolis and St. Paul. As Wednesday marks the Citizens League's 60th birthday party event at CoCo St. Paul I am reflecting back on the last year and thinking about all the great events I've attended at each location - from Minnesota Rising and Social Media Breakfast in St. Paul to the launch party and various networking events at the Minneapolis location. This is coming from a non-member, but a personal tie is also that one of my best friends has been working on the launch of his company, Heroic, from the CoCo Minneapolis workspace. If I wasn't spending all my work time at the U of M I'd be there even more. Of course I love my family even more than CoCo. They are also innovative and inspiring! Taking classes at Carlson at the same time as my 20 year old brother this year has been a fun experience. (It's the first time we've been in the same school together given our age difference).

Vikas Narula:

Love itself! It is the greatest Force in the universe – man's saving Grace.

Steve Clarke:

I love my wife. I love people and connecting them with one another. I love music and I love playing the saxophone. There is nothing quite like it, especially in the depth of improvisation.

I love reaching and connecting with an audience. I love teaching, partially because I am taught in return. There is nothing like seeing the light of understanding in the eyes of a student. It is a moment beyond measure.

Angie Andresen:

My answer to your question, who do you love: Fellow Pollenite Randy Larson. Writing this from Anguilla, where we just got engaged two days ago! Happy Valentine's Day to you and your valentines.

Circus Juventas – nonprofit circus performing arts and youth development organization located in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, is seeking a consultant or firm to develop a long range plan for the future growth of the organization. The selected service provider will work with Circus Juventas’ founders, board of directors, and other constituents to develop this long range plan. Consultants or firms interested in being considered for this project should submit an initial letter of interest to Circus Juventas by February 28, 2012. The complete request for proposal is available online. Contact information regarding questions is contained in the RFP. Please feel free to forward or share this announcement with others who may be interested or qualified in this area.

Boards

The Salvation Army – Twin Cities:

Via Pollenite Amanda Brinkman, "If you are interested in helping launch a Young Professionals group to further the mission of the Salvation Army please join us for an initial meeting on February 28th at 4pm at Yum! in Minneapolis (http://www.yumkitchen.com/).

We'll share a brief background of the work the Army does, and discuss potential options for the focus of a Young Professionals group. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Amanda Brinkman at amanda.brinkman-at-allianzlife.com”